The Annotated Pilgrim™

NOTE: I will make this more official when I have all of Volume 1 finished. Currently it is a work in progress.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

VOLUME 1: SCOTT PILGRIM’S PRECIOUS LITTLE LIFE

PART 1

Inside front coverShe’s supposed to be walking down the hill to the Christie Pits, which is this big park. I totally just made up all the buildings in this drawing, though. The inside cover of Volume 2 has her sitting outside a poorly-drawn Christie Station waiting for the bus (which is like 100 feet from where she’s walking in this picture). It’s kind of as though she lives somewhere around there, but I established she lives closer to Dundas St, which is quite a ways south. Oh well!

“Scott Pilgrim is dating a high schooler!”I wrote the dialogue for this scene in 2002, and it’s only slightly-modified in this book (written and drawn at least two years later). That dialogue was the starting point for the series, along with the name Scott Pilgrim.

They’re eating toast and drinking Pepsi out of mugs. For some reason my friends rarely had glassware, and we would always drink out of their random assortment of crappy mugs.

The house I referenced for Stills & Neil’s apartment is on the east side of Marchmount St., near where Chris Butcher and I used to live. The kitchen interior is referenced from my other friends’ old apartment at Dundas & Beatrice. And the bus in this scene is supposed to be the Ossington bus, near Dupont St in that shot.

Knives’ books say stuff like “Tricky Stuff, Part 2” (as if part 1 wasn’t tricky enough), which is just a joke on the usual Asian-American cram-school mentality.

Scott & Wallace’s apartmentI did use reference for the exterior, although I didn’t draw it very well in Volume 1 – it was this little door in a wall somewhere north of Davenport and east of Oakwood. I don’t think it’s an apartment; it’s probably someone’s cellar or something.
I thought it would be funny to make their apartment literally a hole in the wall. Most Toronto apartments I lived in or visited were very hole-in-the-wall-esque. (I’m not talking about nice apartments, I’m talking about the ones that students and 20-somethings can afford.)

There’s a wall lamp in their apartment that I forget to draw about 90% of the time. I only concretely remember it being there in this scene, and then a few pages later when Stacey calls and he turns it on.

I think Wallace Wells was subconsciously named for Wade Wells, the Sabrina Lloyd character from
Sliders. I had such a crush on her when I was like 15 or whatever.

Kim Pine & Sex Bob-ombKim is the oldest character in the series; I’ve had different versions of her running around my stories since high school. I like the name, and a snarky, embittered young woman is good to have around in most situations. Full disclosure: she was initially part of a reluctant teenaged superhero team and her mutant power was that spines would come out of her body when she was emotionally agitated! (They had a guy like this in the third x-men movie and I felt violated)

I don’t remember when or how I came up with the name Sex Bob-omb. I didn’t really like it at first because it’s so awful and clunky, but then the awfulness and clunkiness eventually became endearing, so I kept it around. Their jam space (in their living room) is probably something my friends and I wish we had, but now I just feel sorry for their neighbours.

On the bus at the end of this scene there’s an ad for the (fictional) Trapnest album, “Trigger”, from the comic Nana, by Ai Yazawa. Nana was a big inspiration when I was working on Volume 1.

Afterwards
I should mention that Neil’s bed is referenced from my friend Luke’s bed. And that Neil is always on the computer (like many of you!).

Stacey calls
Stacey Pilgrim is based on my own sister (also called Stacey). She always wanted to be a star, so I thought she might as well be in the book.

This scene also contains the not-very-infamous gaffe where Wallace’s last name says “Weldon” on the mailbox (it should be “Wells” – it was originally Weldon, but I changed it). I also like the idea that Scott enjoys getting junkmail, and specifically requests it on the mailbox.

Trainspotting, and after
This scene takes place at the corner of St Clair and Bathurst, although I might have switched a few businesses around so I could draw more interesting signs. Knives’ school is up there too and I think it’s called St. Michael’s. I have recently been reminded that St. Michael's is a boys'
school, so... IT'S NOT REAL IT'S JUST A COMIC!

The “Trainspotting” page is the first page I drew, and I drew it at a larger size and I did the balloons with a brush. I changed my methods soon after, but I kept the page in the book. (The second page I drew was the earlier page introducing Wallace in their apartment, which I drew on computer paper, for some reason? After
that, I started drawing at 7” x 11” on Strathmore bristol, which I continued using through the end of Vol 3 and the Free story.)

Knives’ line “Bobby is kind of fobby” is one of my secret favourites. I have a weakness for dumb jokes and rhymes.

Scott’s old house is near the corner of Bracondale Hill and Turner Rd., just north of Davenport and east of Ossington. Scott says it’s where he lived when he was in high school. He really only had one year of high school there (maybe not even a full year), but I’ll forgive him the slip since he has a bad memory anyway.

Scott’s dream (1), and Ramona
I like how his dream takes place in a cartoon desert. I guess the dream is about how he’s secretly feeling inside after being dumped (we see this reflected in Vol 3 flashbacks a bit if you’re paying attention and/or if the book didn't print too dark, which it did in the first printing).

We see Ramona for the first time here so I’ll mention that her initial hairstyle was based on a girl that I saw dancing at a club one time, ages ago. And I saw a girl on the Bathurst bus wearing a star ring one time, so I put it on Ramona. The star ended up being sort of Ramona’s symbol (it’s also on her bag, and on the subspace doors).

Sushi and the Wychwood library
Nippon Sushi was supposed to be Japan Sushi, which was near the corner of Bloor and Bathurst last time I checked. They changed their name recently, so I am sad. They used to serve large orders on boats. “Other Scott” is loosely based on our friend Scott Robins who works at Scholastic Canada. He and Wallace are just friends!

The Wychwood library is real (at the corner of Bathurst and St Clair) and I tried to capture it in some detail. Apparently the Toronto Public Library reprinted this page in their annual report, or something, which is nice. I love libraries, and was a library wage-slave for 7 years while in high school and university. Libraries often do remind me of grade school, though, either at the North Bay Public Library or various school libraries. I was a bookish kid.

Scott’s dream (2), and the party
In Scott’s second dream we see an early, hastily-drawn Envy Adams, and his mind also puts Knives in there (playing saxophone for some reason). It’s kind of an early hint at the Kid Chameleon backstory explained more in Volume 3.

Julie is supposed to live on Queen Street, which I didn't bother referencing whatsoever, but I also didn't mention where they were (and Scott is oblivious, anyway). I don’t think I ever really attended a house party with THAT many people, but it seemed plausible enough. Scott is supposed to be drinking non-alcoholic punch,
and we also see Ramona in the background filling her cup from the punch bowl, in the second panel.

I have no recollection of how I came to give Ramona the Mr. Men shoes, but those books were such a huge part of my childhood and I think I wanted to pay tribute in some small way.

The character Michael Comeau is based on a real person named Michael Comeau. He seems to know everyone, and I needed a character like that, so I just asked him if he wouldn’t mind (or maybe I didn’t and I just told him after). We briefly worked together at the Beguiling and we both weren’t cut out for it, I think. (I don't call him "Michael" until Volume 3.)

Monique and Sandra are named after (and loosely modeled after) two girls I knew in middle school, so deepest apologies to the two of them if they ever read these books.

St. Michael's College School is a private catholic school for boys!!! "Drawing on your Toronto roots,"
yet again, I see. Or is Knives actually a boy? Will this be revealed in future volumes? Did I just spoil everything? Not again!

Yes! I was watching a bunch of Wes Anderson movies with director commentary on the other day and I started thinking of comics that should get director commentary and Scott Pilgrim was one of the first that came to mind.

Yes! I echo Vera's sentiments. The trivia and in-jokes are awesome, but as a fartist, I would definitely appreciate comments about your intentions with pacing, layout and general storytelling techniques, whenever they're worth commenting on. Maybe no one else cares but I do!! Can't wait for more.

1. i love other scott's teeny tiny fey eyelashes.2. jacob calls
these shoes i just bought
my ramona shoes.3. i had a crush on a girl named raven when i was 18 & she had the same haircut as ramona in the first book. except raven's head was actually growing back from being shaved. and raven is pretty gay.

It makes me happy that there is so much real life that went into Scott Pilgrim. I guess I wondered if alot of your writing/drawing came from your life experiences, I'm pleased to see it was.

On a different note, I love your new icon. It took me about most of my life to find Clash at Demon Head again. Long story short: My mom was dating this guy when I was little and he had two older boys. They had alot of video games, and I had a recollection of them playing this game that seemed SO SO cool then. I held onto that memory all these years, never knowing the title, and remembering most running into a guy in a dark cave that's all beat up and bloody. Then I was searching again for it and I thought "Clash at Demon Head. Sounds like it could possibly be the one!" I played it on my Nes emulator, and there you go. End story.

The Mr. Men joke is still one of my favorites in the series, partly because I used to work at a kids' book-store and we stocked those (the books, not the shoes). I guess they were bigger in Canada or something, though, because almost nobody I talk to about SP gets it.

One time I told a guy with an X-Men patch on his jacket "Nice patch- total Scott Pilgrim style" and he was all "Yes! Yeah, man!" and he recommended to me a comic called
Teenagers From Mars
that I ended up loving. And that's how Scott Pilgrim changed my life.